The sleeping pills that had drugged their backup bodyguards? Why would she have drugged them, though?
He stared down at the phone. The text highlighted on the screen said, Thanks for the heads-up that Tyce had found our insurance policy.
He sucked in a breath, feeling like he’d been sucker punched. He’d wanted to go into that room with her and Luther to protect her. But he’d needed to be inside to protect his friend and himself.
Because not only his stomach hurt; his heart ached, too, feeling as if it was breaking.
He’d been such a fool to change his mind about her. An even bigger fool for trusting her. And the biggest fool for beginning to fall for her.
* * *
Jocelyn had been hoping that Landon would join her in the shower. Once she’d washed off the revulsion she’d felt from her visit with Luther Mills and his sleazy lawyer, she’d still felt chilled. Scared that Luther might just get away with murder again.
And she’d needed Landon’s arms around her, holding her, comforting her, keeping her safe.
She’d needed the heat of their passion to chase away all her fears and concerns again, like it had this weekend. But the weekend hadn’t lasted forever, no matter how much she’d wished it had. And because she’d wished they could go back—to the weekend and that safe hotel suite—she’d gone downstairs, in only her towel, to find him.
She found him leaning over her briefcase, and she gasped in shock. “You’re still snooping through my stuff?” she asked. And despite the towel wrapped around her, she felt completely naked and vulnerable and incredibly hurt. “You can’t still think I’m working for Luther?”
“I can’t?” he asked, as he turned toward her. His handsome face was flushed with anger, his jaw rigid with it. “When he sends you a text thanking you for the tip about Tyce knowing where Bella Holmes was being held?”
“What?” she asked. “My phone’s upstairs.” Out of habit, she’d brought it with her into the bathroom. She never knew when her boss might call her. She’d also wanted it close in case someone called her about the situation with the judge’s daughter.
“Not that phone,” he said. “This phone.” And he pointed to the cell phone lying atop the folders in her briefcase. “The one you use to communicate with Luther Mills.”
She shook her head. “That’s not my phone.”
“The bottle isn’t yours either?” he asked.
“No,” she said, and now anger gripped her, that he could actually suspect even for a moment that those things were hers. “I found the phone and bottle in my filing cabinet in the office...” Her voice cracked with that anger now as it overwhelmed her. “...right before someone tried to strangle me to death.”
Before they’d left her office, she’d shoved them into her briefcase with the intent of turning them over to the chief when she felt safe, when she’d been confident that she could trust anyone besides Landon.
Clearly now he didn’t trust her. He closed his eyes as if he couldn’t bear the sight of her.
“Do you honestly think I did that to myself?” she asked. “After everything you know about me now, how can you think I would ever work for Luther Mills?”
He sighed and opened his eyes, which were full of regret. “I’m sorry. I just talked to Parker—”
“Have they found the judge’s daughter?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Is she okay?”
“She is,” he confirmed, but there was fear yet in his voice.
And she knew. “Tyce isn’t...”
“He was shot rescuing her,” Landon said. “Parker said it was as if someone tipped off Luther and he sent in reinforcements.” He held up the cell phone. “Then Luther sent this text to this phone.”
She looked at the screen now, reading the thank-you message. She shuddered in revulsion and felt as if she needed to shower again. “That’s not my phone,” she repeated. “And, unfortunately, there’s probably no way to prove that message came from Luther.”
But why had he sent it? Did he know she had it now? Was he just messing with her?
Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked furiously to fight them from falling. “But it is my fault,” she murmured as guilt pressed on her lungs. “I was trying to scare him into giving up information that might lead to where Bella was being held, so I bluffed that Tyce had already found her.” She shook her head at her stupidity. “I should have known that Luther was too smart to fall for it.”
“You weren’t bluffing,” Landon said. “Tyce had figured out where she was being held.”
“Is he going to be okay?” she asked, her heart pounding hard with dread and fast with fear.
Landon’s broad shoulders lifted in a weak shrug. “He’s in surgery.”
That didn’t sound good.
“But Tyce is tough. He got her out and got her to the hospital to be checked out before anybody even realized he’d been shot.”
What kind of people were the Payne Protection bodyguards? Shot in the neck, blood gushing from his wound, Landon had still managed to save her.
She pointed toward the pill bottle. “That must have been what was used to drug the backup bodyguards,” she said. “Why would I do that? Why would I help Luther Mills? You know I don’t need money. All I need is justice.”
And him—she needed him. But he couldn’t trust her. So they had no future. Hell, even if he could trust her, they had no future. She had to focus on her job, on making sure criminals like Luther Mills were brought to justice.
Landon stepped closer and cupped her bare shoulders in his big hands. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“I understand why you did,” she admitted. “I can’t believe Luther sent that text.”
“Who else—”
“No,” she said. “I know it’s him.” Even if they would never be able to prove it. “But I don’t know why he would have.”
“To mess with you,” Landon said. “To make you feel guilty, to knock you off your game—because he knows he’s going to court now.”
She sucked in a breath as she realized he was right. She would soon have to face Luther Mills again—in court. And she could not lose or he would be free and even more dangerous than he was behind bars.
“That’s not all he’s going to do, though,” Landon said. “He’s going to step up his efforts to try to take you out, so that whoever is working for him in the DA’s office can take over his case.”
She shivered, very cold despite his touch on her bare skin. But she was not about to back down—from Luther Mills or from Landon.
She wanted him. But she was afraid that wasn’t all. She needed him. Hell, she might even love him. She lifted her arms to link them behind his neck, and she pulled his head down to hers.
“Jocelyn...” he murmured, his brown eyes even darker with desire and something else. Fear. For her or for him?
It was clear he wanted to say more—about Luther, about the case, about her prosecuting the case—but she didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to think about it.
She only wanted to feel that passion only he had ever made her feel. She rose up on tiptoe and pressed her mouth to his, kissing him deeply.
A groan emanated from his throat as he kissed her back with the same intensity and hunger she felt for him. He pulled away and murmured her name again. But then he lifted and carried her toward the stairs. He rushed up to her bedroom, where he set her on her feet again.
The towel had loosened and dropped from her body, leaving her naked before him. But she wasn’t just physically naked. She felt emotionally stripped, too.
Hurt that he’d doubted her. Vulnerable that she’d cared so much that he had.
Did she already love him?
She was more afraid that she might than she was even afraid of Luther Mills. She didn’t want
to be in love.
But Landon was her hero in so many ways. She reached for the buttons on his shirt, needing him as bare as she was, needing to feel his heart beating against hers. As she attacked the buttons, he slipped off his holster and placed it on the table next to the bed. Then he shrugged off the shirt and unbuttoned his jeans, dropping them and his boxers to the floor.
He obviously wanted her as badly as she wanted him. His erection jutted toward her. But when she reached for him, he pulled back. Then he leaned down and fumbled in his pocket for a condom.
Before he could roll it on, she reached out and closed her fingers around him. Then she leaned over and made love to him with her mouth.
He groaned and tangled his fingers in her hair, gently pulling her back. “I need to be inside you,” he said, his voice gruff with desire. “I need to be part of you.”
That was how it felt when they made love—like they were no longer separate, like they became one being. She lay back on the bed and held her arms out for him.
His hand shook as he rolled on the condom. Then he joined her on the bed. She parted her legs and he knelt between them, easing gently inside her. She arched up and wrapped her limbs around him, holding him tight as she took him deeper.
A low moan tore from her throat as the first orgasm moved through her. The tension had been wound so tightly inside her, that was all it took. But he built the tension again with slow, deep strokes, as he lowered his head and kissed her.
First he brushed his lips over hers. Then he moved them down her throat. She gasped as his tongue stroked across her bruised skin.
“I’m sorry...” he said.
The strangling wasn’t his fault, and he knew that. She was the one who’d gone out with no protection. So she suspected he was apologizing for earlier—for those brief moments he’d doubted her.
Warmth flooded her, but it wasn’t just desire this time. She felt so much more for Landon, things she’d never wanted to feel for anyone or anything but her job.
He slid his arm under her back and lifted her up as he eased back on his haunches. She straddled his thighs, then locked her legs around his waist. In this position, her body was aligned with his, so that her breasts were nearly on the level with his face.
He took advantage of that fact, and he closed his lips around a taut nipple. He gently tugged on it, and she moaned, the tension winding so tightly inside her again.
He thrust up, sliding even deeper inside her. Desperate for release, she moved and rocked against him as she clutched at his broad shoulders. Then she lowered her head and nipped at his shoulder.
He chuckled, then groaned as she swiped her tongue across it. Then she shifted her lips to his throat and then his mouth, kissing him deeply. They moved as one, their rhythm completely in sync, and that was how they found their pleasure, crying out as it overwhelmed them.
Shaken and spent from the powerful orgasm, Jocelyn felt boneless and limply sank into the mattress when he released her. Within seconds, after cleaning up, he was back with her, pulling her into his arms. His chest rose and fell with pants for breath and the powerful beat of his heart.
Hers beat with the same intensity. Even though she’d found release, she’d also found more fear—because she knew without a doubt that she loved him.
* * *
He had his emergency bag packed, complete with a forged passport and a substantial amount of cash. He would get more—so much more money—if he stayed and made sure that Luther Mills got away with murder again. But if he stayed, he risked getting caught and losing his freedom.
And despite the money he’d made working for Luther, he didn’t have enough to get away with his crimes like Luther did. And once it was known what he’d done, he would have no allies—only enemies.
A phone vibrated on the table near his bed. Two of them sat on it, the one on which Luther called him and his real cell phone. He stared at them, wondering which it was.
Luther calling...wondering if he’d killed Jocelyn Gerber yet. Or Jocelyn calling...wondering why the hell he wasn’t at the office yet.
He stepped away from the suitcase he was packing on the bed and stared down at the phone. Judge Holmes...
Was it a trick? Was the man calling to put him on speaker for his daughter to identify his voice? He’d been careful to disguise it when he’d spoken to the judge during her abduction. He’d even used a special device to digitally alter the sound of his voice. But because he hadn’t thought Bella Holmes would make it out of captivity alive, he hadn’t bothered disguising it around her.
Of course, he’d met her only a couple of times in the judge’s chambers. And being the social butterfly she was, she met new people all the time. He doubted that she would be able to place him.
So he punched in the accept button.
“This is Judge Holmes.” The older man needlessly identified himself. “I am trying to get a hold of ADA Gerber. Do you have any idea where she might be?”
Before he answered, he coughed and sputtered, so that the judge would think he had a cold. “No, Your Honor. I’m sorry. I don’t know where she could be.”
“She’s not at the office.”
“I’m not at the office either,” he replied. “I’ve been battling a flu bug for a couple of weeks now.” An illness would explain his disappearances and absences over the past couple of weeks—if anyone had noticed.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the judge replied. “I thought you might be Ms. Gerber’s second chair for Luther Mills’s trial.”
He should have been first. “I think Jocelyn has determined she can handle the prosecution on her own. And isn’t that trial a couple of weeks off yet?”
“An opening came up in the docket, and we’re able to start sooner than expected,” he replied, “as long as the lawyers have no objections.”
Luther would have objections and more demands on him. Jocelyn had to die now before the trial could start. Of course the judge was eager to begin the trial, because he wouldn’t be able to bring his daughter home from wherever he’d hidden her until it was all over.
“I will be heading into the office soon, Your Honor,” he said. “If I see Jocelyn, I will tell her to contact you.”
“Thank you.” The judge clicked off the cell.
He tossed his phone down and uttered a low growl of frustration. He had no choice now. He could not fail again. This time—when he tried—he had to make damn certain he killed Jocelyn Gerber.
CHAPTER 21
Jocelyn trembled against him, a cry slipping through her lips. Landon had already been lying awake, unable to sleep, because he was so damn worried about her. She must have been worried, too, because even in her sleep, she could not rest. He tightened his arm around her and rubbed her bare back with his other hand.
“Shhh,” he murmured. “It’s all right. I have you.”
She jerked awake and stared up at him, her blue eyes wide with fear. She reached out a shaking hand and touched his face. “You’re okay...”
So her nightmare hadn’t been about something happening to her, but to him.
He shook his head. “I’m not okay,” he said.
“No.” Her fingers skimmed over the healing wound on his neck. “You’re going to have a scar.”
A scar was the least of his concerns. He was more worried about having a broken heart. And he would if anything happened to her. “I’m not okay,” he said, “because I’m worried about you. I want you to give up the case.”
She tensed and stared up at him, the fear turning to confusion then anger in her blue eyes. “What? How can you ask me to do that?”
“Because it’s too dangerous.”
She shook her head. “What’s too dangerous would be letting Luther Mills back on the streets. He can’t keep getting away with his crimes. He needs to go to prison.”
“You don’t have to be t
he one to send him there,” Landon pointed out. “Someone else can do it.”
“You’re the one who’s been adamant that someone within the DA’s office is working for him. If I give up the case, that person might get it, and then Luther would once again escape justice.” She shook her head. “I can’t risk that. I can’t be the one who lets him go free.”
“If you try this, you might be,” he goaded her. “You don’t know that he’ll get convicted even with you prosecuting him.”
Her already pale skin grew paler, and her breath escaped in a shaky sigh. “You still don’t think I’m good at my job.”
“I don’t trust Luther Mills,” he said. “And neither should you.”
“Of course I don’t!”
“You don’t know what he might pull next,” Landon said. “It’s too dangerous for you to take him on.”
“It’s too late,” she said. “I already have.”
And she had the marks for her trouble—the scrape on her shoulder, the dark bruise around her neck. She could have already been killed. He didn’t like her chances for surviving the trial.
“And I’m not backing down,” she said.
Fear filled Landon’s heart—fear for her and for himself. But he had to say it. He cared too much not to lay it all out there, not to lay himself bare.
“Not even for me?” he asked.
Her brow furrowed. “I can’t believe you would ask me to do this... You’ve wanted to get Luther Mills probably as long as I have.”
“I still do,” he said. “But I don’t want to lose you in the process. I care too much, Jocelyn.” He loved her, but before he could open his mouth to say those words, she put her fingers over his lips.
“Don’t...”
Before he could say or do anything else, she tugged free of his arms and rushed out of the bed into the adjacent bathroom. Then he heard it, too, the ringing of her cell phone.
She’d rather take a call than hear his declaration of love. Was that because she didn’t feel the same way?
Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set Page 60
